Wonder of the Week: December 15-19

Does salt water freeze? 

Explain your answer.

Congratulations to Andrew Combs in Mrs. Watson's class for getting the answer correct to the wonder "How do birds survive the coldest winter?" Click on the link below to find out the answer.

http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-do-birds-survive-the-coldest-winters/

STEM in the Discovery Lab

STEM...Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math

The first grade students here at C-FG were busy learning about force and motion through various STEM activities. All of the STEM activities were done in our Discovery Lab. The students rotated through 5 different stations, where they learned about force and motion. Below are pictures that show each station and capture the learning. 

Station 1: Rolling Balls

1. Use a balance and cubes to compare the weight of the balls

2. Test different balls (glass, wood, plastic, and foam) on a bare ramp to see which one goes the furthest. How many tiled did each ball go? How was it different from the others?

3. Did the difference in the weight of the balls change the results?

4. Is there anything you could do to the ramp to change the results?

Station 2: Gears Station

1. Line up several gears and apply force to the first gear. How does the energy transfer?

2. Do all the gears in a row move in the same direction? Do you see a pattern?

Station 3: Rolling on a Ramp

1. Release a toy car from the top of the ramp and mark where it stops. 

2. Measure the distance it traveled on the floor.

3. Repeat and record your best distance.

4. Choose a new material to cover the ramp.

5. Test and record your best distance for each surface. 

6. Which material worked best? Is there anything else we could do to improve our results?

Station 4: Dominoes Station

1. Line up dominoes and apply force to the first domino. Watch the energy transfer!

2. Line up dominoes to form the letter S.

3. Line up dominoes to form the letter Z.

4. Can you know them all down with just one push?

Station 5: Marble Run

1. Combine several pieces to create a tower, then test marbles to complete the run.

2. In what direction does the marble need to move?

3. Is there anything else we could do to improve our results?

Wonder of the Week December 1-5

How do birds survive the coldest winter?

Don't forget to get your answer in by Thursday afternoon! The winner will be announced on Monday, December 8. Happy Wondering!

Parent Resources!!!!

I am very excited to let all of you know that I have added a parent resource tab to our math resource website- www.cfgmath.weebly.com. You can also find the link to the website at the top of the blog. Make sure to check out the awesome resources that have been added. Some of the resources include videos of 4th grade multiplication strategies, numbers 1-20 flashcards, multiplication flashcards, videos of 2nd grade subtraction strategies, and much more!

I hope you enjoy, and please let me know if there are certain resources you would like added! You can comment on the bottom of this post.

I hope you all have wonderful and safe Thanksgiving holiday! We will start back with our Wonder of the Week when we return.

South Carolina Math Standards

A draft of the new math and ELA standards have been posted on the state department of education website. Anyone (teachers, parents, business people, all stakeholders) can view the standards and provide feedback. The deadline for providing feedback is November 30. I have provided a link below.

http://ed.sc.gov/scde-grant-opportunities/NewSCStandards.cfm

Wonder of the Week Winners

I have two Wonder of the Week winners to announce! Cara Linkous was the winner of the wonder "Why do the leaves change color in the fall?" Zane Hansman was the winner of the wonder "Why do the seasons (winter, spring, summer, fall) change?" Congratulations to Zane and Cara! Both students were able to announce their answers over the school intercom. You can find the links to the answers below. Also, don't forget to get your answer in for this week's wonder "Why do we eat Turkey on Thanksgiving?" We will not have a wonder next week, due to Thanksgiving holidays.

Wonder of the Week Winner and Answer

We had a lot of students answer the wonder of the week "Why do you get hiccups?"We could, however, only have one winner. The winner is Marianna Bishop in Ms. Plumley's class. Congratulations, Marianna! Click on the link below to learn why we get hiccups.

http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-do-you-get-rid-of-hiccups/

Wonder of the Week: November 3-7

Why do leaves change color in autumn/fall?

Remember to put your answer in the wonder box by Thursday afternoon! The winner will be announced on Friday, November 7.

4th Grade Math Talk Video

Check out this 4th grade example of "good" math talk.

Wonder of the Week October 20-23

Why do bats sleep upside down?

Make sure to get your answer in by Thursday morning! The winner will be announced Thursday afternoon over the school intercom.

Math Talk

At our October professional development, the teachers rotated through stations learning about inquiry, math talk, and formative assessment. Prior to the professional development, the teachers watched "good" and "bad" math talk videos on a blendspace. During the PD, the teachers had to create their own math talk videos. The math talk videos mirror what math talk should and should not look like for their specific grade level. Below are some AWESOME math talk videos from kindergarten and 1st grade teachers.

GOOD Math Talk Video for Grades K-1

BAD Math Talk Video for Grades K-1

GOOD Math Talk Video for Grades K-1

Math in Mrs. Marlowe's Room!

Mrs. Marlowe's students are learning all about math through math workstations and small groups. Check out the pictures below!

The students are learning all about doubles!

The students are practicing subtraction and addition fast facts using flashcards.

All of Mrs. Marlowe's students have a math tool kit. In their math tool kits you will find counters, connecting cubs, a number line, and a ten frame. Every time Mrs. Marlowe introduces a tool and the students have a chance to use the tool, it is added to their tool kit. During one of the math stations, the students chose to use a number line to figure out an addition number sentence. You could definitely tell that Mrs. Marlowe taught the students how to use the number line because they did not have any trouble using the tool. Check out the picture below of one of the math tool kits.

Week of the Week: October 13-17

Do pumpkins float or sink? Explain your answer.

Don't forget to put your answer in the wonder box by Thursday afternoon! The winner will be announced on Friday morning!

Wonder of the Week Winner!

There were so many people that got the wonder of the week "Can you grow candy corn?" correct, so I had to draw one name out of a box. The winner is.... Kennedy in Mrs. McDowell's kindergarten class!  Congratulations, Kennedy!

Kennedy's answer: "You can't grow candy corn because you can't grow candy. Candy corn is a candy."

Click on the link below to find out exactly how candy corn is made.

http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/can-you-grow-candy-corn/

Wonder of the Week Winner

Congratulations to Albina in Mrs. McDowell's kindergarten class! She was the winner of the wonder of the week "Why do oceans have waves?" Albina shared her answer with the school over the loud speaker this past Friday. Check out the answer below.

Why do oceans have waves?

Answer:  Most waves are caused by the wind blowing on the water's surface. Also, the gravity of the moon and sun act like magnets that push and pull the water. When this happens, it's called a tide.

Don't forget about the wonder of the week this week "Can you grow candy corn?" You will need to explain your answer. The winner will be announced on Friday! Happy Wondering!

Wonder of the Week October 6- 10

Can you grown candy corn? 

Please explain your answer.

The answer and winner will be announced on Friday! Happy Wondering!!! 

Mathematicians in Mrs. McDowell and Mrs. Murph's 5k

Mrs. McDowell and Mrs. Murph have TONS of MATHEMATICIANS in their classroom. In the pictures below the students are using Rekenreks.

A little tidbit about Rekenreks...
"Rekenreks originated in the Netherlands and have been widely used in other countries to help students reason about numbers, subitize, build fluency, and compute using number relationships (Fosnot and Dolk 2001). The rekenrek is composed of two rows of stringed beads with five beads of one color and five beads of another color on each row. They are colored in groups of five to help students "see" or subitize the quantity of five. The teacher has the option of using only one row of beads at a time to build fluency up to ten or using both rows to work on fluency with numbers up to twenty" (Parrish 2010).

Picture of a rekenrek:

Mathematical Practice #2

Reason Abstractly and Quantutatively

What in the world does that mean? Check out the posters below to help you make sense of practice #2. 

Grades Kindergarten-1st Grade

Grades 2nd-4th Grade

Wonder of the Week September 26- October 2

Wonder of the Week

Why do oceans have waves? 

Make sure to put your answer in the "Wonder" box outside of the cafeteria by Thursday! The winner will be announced on Friday. Happy Wondering!

Wonder of the Week: Sept. 22-26

Wonder of the Week: September 22-26

Why do you blink your eyes?

CONGRATULATIONS TO KAILEY RIDINGS!!!! She was our wonder of the week winner! She will share her answer with the school on Monday morning. Click on the link below to see the answer to the wonder of the week.

http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-do-you-blink-2/

Mathematical Processes

Check out this awesome resource on the mathematical processes. It connects very well to our mathematical practices. It provides you with instructional strategies, the roles of students, and sample questions and feedback for problem solving, reasoning and proving, reflecting, selecting tools and computational strategies, connecting, representing, and communicating.Thank you Mrs. McLean for sharing! :)

http://www.edugains.ca/resources/LearningMaterials/MathProcesses/MathProcessessPackage.pdf

Mathematical Practice #1

Implementing the 8 mathematical practices is essential in creating a classroom of innovators, risk takers, and problem solvers.  Each week, I will post about one of the mathematical practices.

Mathematical Practice #1: 

Make Sense of Problems and Persevere in Solving Them

It is important for teachers to know how to implement each mathematical practice because that is beneficial in modeling for our students, but in the end what's most important is for our students to be implementing the practices in the math classroom. Here is a student friendly poster for practice #1.

Grades K-1:

Grades 2-3:

**Please let me know if you want a copy of the student-friendly mathematical practices. :)

Click the link below and type in your PD360 username and password to check out a video from PD360 on Mathematical Practice #1:

https://www.pd360.com/#resources/videos/7287

Do You Have Early Finishers?

I had to share this cool idea I found! When I taught 1st and 4th grade I always had early finishers. It didn't matter whether it was math workstations, group work, or independent practice, I always had a few students that would finish early and be bored out of their minds. This is a great way to challenge students and keep them problem solving after they have completed a task. The students can complete this in a "challenge" notebook or in the back of their math journals.

"Take-Aways" from Sandra Goff

The Friday before school started, I had the opportunity to listen to Sandra Goff speak about the mathematical practices, fluency, and much more. I have listed some "take-aways" from the presentation below.

• Mathematical practices are not optional...You need to be doing some of them everyday!
• If students know how to solve a problem they should be able to Model It!
• Math Tool Kits...tools are not only the manipulatives that we want our students to use, but they are strategies, such as a using a number line and base ten blocks, rounding, multiplication, and division. Students also need to know how and when to use the appropriate strategy, and they need to be given opportunities to select the tool they think they should use.
• Fluency: there are 3 parts of fluency- students must be able to use and understand fluency; if they don't know how to do it, you can't expect fluency

Ideas for Fluency:

1. Pocket Fact: Each student gets a fact (write a fact on a card); their job is to know that fact at anytime during the day; you can switch the cards the next day; ask the kids the fact throughout the day
2. Wear facts as your name of the day: students call each other the fact they have on the name tag instead of their name- Example: "2x2=4 will you play with me?"

Each week, I am going to focus on one mathematical practice. Check back on Tuesday for information on mathematical practice #1: Making Sense of Problems.

K-5 Math Teaching Resources

Happy Wednesday! I found an AWESOME website that is filled with resources! Woohoo! I was very excited when I came across this gem! The website is http://www.k-5mathteachingresources.com/. You can also find the link under Helpful Websites in the bottom right hand corner of the blog. The resources are organized by grade level and according to the CCSS. I have uploaded some of the games to our CFG Math website. Please let me know if you need help preparing, organizing, or starting math workstations! Math workstations are great for teaching problem-solving, collaboration, and communication!

Welcome to Our Math Blog!

I hope all of you are having a fabulous week with your students! I wanted to introduce you all to our math blog Project Math. I will use this blog to keep all of you in the math loop. The blog will also have a link to CFG Math website. On this website, I will upload math games and resources for you to use in the classroom.

When you enter the CFG Math website, click on math in the upper right hand corner and then click on your grade level. Under your grade level, you will find the math games and resources. I have organized the games and resources based on the standard. I will be uploading games and resources on a regular basis, so please check back periodically.

I will continue to update the website to make it easier to navigate. If you have any suggestions on how it could be better, please let me know. I hope this tool will be beneficial when planning math and workstations.

I know I have said this many times, but please do not hesitate to let me know if you need help with anything! I am beyond excited to start this math journey with all of you!

Hey, Everyone!

I am beyond excited to start this new journey with all of you at Carlisle-Foster's Grove! I am looking forward to meeting and getting to know everyone! If there is anything I can help you do to prepare for the first week of school, please do not hesitate to let me know! I hope your first week with the students is fabulous!